Kamisama Dolls – the issues of being a B+ Anime

Let me get this out of way. Yes, I like this show. And no, I’m NOT biased toward it, even with Hibino and her big (and yes, holy and wonderful ) bosom going around mesmerizing me. Or the moe little sister Utaou doing a little tsundere and totally stuck on Kyohei, our nearly totally flat and pretty bland protagonist. Even with all that, I’m not biased toward it.

It’s a decent show with decent plots and OK drama until episode 7. There, the drama picks up. We get to know why Kyohei hates Aki, the gray-haired (BL bait) bishonen. We learn about their past in the village where they came from. And, we the Otaku get our dreams of pure virgins, in this case, an upbeat and positive-minded young woman teacher, who receives false accusations while being totally innocent of all wrongs, smashed.

There was so much delicious drama and character development / interaction that went on that the rest of the show just seem so…forced.

For the rest of show, every moment, every character seems to try so hard to be cool but ultimately likable in one way or another. Even Aki, who supposedly is blood-thirsty, has reasons why he is that way. And what bothers me is that the show tries so hard to make that known to us. It’s like the show is saying: “Hey, he’s a bad boy. But yes, he’s got a great reason to be bad and yes, you fujoshi can totally put him in your doujinshi and not feel guilty about it.” Oh and,

Never mind that he was supposed to be a Freddy Kruger-like character who loved torture and kill animals as a kid; he was influenced by the young teacher (the subject of school BOY’s fantasy) and he almost turned good. Now that’s not bad. I honestly felt bad that some fucking bully in the village tried to hurt her, and one thing led to another, the teacher died, and Aki finally went totally over the edge. I just wish the show doesn’t make Aki so bad-ass likable in every way and being so obvious about it. And that’s not the only gripe. It’s like the show tries to make everyone likable, so much so that even when they try to act like real people and nearly baring their unlikable moments, the show stops them dead in their tracks and say “hey, that’s enough for now.”

It’s a great escape B+ anime. But it’s inhibitions, not to mention the lack of conviction to firmly establish itself into drama/action territory prevents it from venturing into A territory. And that’s a shame, because Ishikawa Chiaki’s songs do deserve something a little bit more firmly serious and moving. In the end, her songs serves to add the flavor of sadness, but doesn’t lift it up into prime time category.

Bottomline: yes, it’s a good light drama for anyone that doesn’t want the too-heavy stuff, but it may possibly leave you wanting just a little more.

6 thoughts on “Kamisama Dolls – the issues of being a B+ Anime”

Huh? Unless I’m very much mistaken, there wasn’t really “false accusations” about the teacher. It’s a dirty little secret she’s forced to hide, and also the reason why she ended up being a teacher in the middle of nowhere.

I agree, btw, that Chiaki Ishikawa’s songs are pure awesome, and they really add a lot more to the show.

@ du5K – ha ha, I forgot to add a comma in that line and no, you are totally NOT mistaken. What I meant was that in most shows, the teacher character would’ve been innocent, but in this case, she’s totally guilty as hell. For most otakus, that smashes their dreams of having pure, virgin-like women needing love and protection.

Not to mention it’s the antagonist (Aki) and not the protagonist (Kyohei), who bagged her.
(btw, sorry our spam catcher made a mistake!)

I wouldn’t have kept following this show if I didn’t see Hibino in the first episode, the girl you tried to confess somehow ends up together in the unexpected adventure. I don’t know if I’m in love with her, but with hers definitely, utterly mesmerizing, and her skin tone, manifestation of joshidaisei. It’s a unique phase that girls go thru, so Hibino has special appeal to me. Unlike immaturish joshikousei, Hibino is fully ripened, this quality that only university girls can have, signified by hers, most ripened parts, abundance of fertility!

Yeah, teacher episode was really sad. I felt very personal to this episode. It made me wonder my high school music teacher’s whereabouts. But best keep it as my good old memory.

Yeah, the Miyuki chara is just annoying. So unnecessary.

So, the anime hasn’t match up with Ishikawa Chiaki’s somberness, hu? I don’t care much about drama quality but how I can relate it to myself, especially through 2-D girls, like Hibino and Sensei.

Doesn’t anyone other than me feels that Hibino’s rack is hideously oversized? Don’t get me wrong, I love all things oppai especially the huge ones; but she looks like she carries a couple of inflatable cannonballs on her chest. It didn’t even look so wierd in the manga, but in the anime, it made all her clothes look like it has tailor-made breast compartments. It seemed like a really hard sell.

du5k – yeah, actually, they are way too big. When I was chatting with Mike, I told him that Hibino’s tits sometimes just knock me out of the flow. I mean, her presences makes the show totally unreal, and that actually bad for dramatic storytelling. We are supposed to believe that in the Kamisama Doll’s world, things like Kakashi and other stuff happen, but HIbino’s breasts totally protrude (har har har) through the veil and break the spell. I mean, in all earnestness, I can deal with it, but I actually find it annoying as well. Especially when they are not that well drawn.
But you know, holy big bosoms are holy big bosoms, batman! XD